Re: MX2 2016 Integration Marathon
Had a quick crack at the integral with the nested square roots in my break.
So the main difficulty in the problem is handling the integrand, it is not at all clear that this formally written object will be a well defined function, and on which domain it will be defined. (These sorts of things can also have different expressions in different parts of their domain).
If we denote this function by g(x), then from the positivity of square roots, we expect that g is a function defined on the interval of integration (at least) that satisfies:
i) (g(x)^2-x)^2=x - g(x)
ii) x < g(x)^2 < x + sqrt(x)
I believe that these conditions uniquely determine the function g on this interval, given by g(x)=(1+sqrt(4x-3))/2.
This function is straightforward to integrate and gives 127/6.
(Upon confirmation of this answer, I will post how I obtained that expression for g(x) later, but until then I won't ruin it for others. I rushed this calculation a bit so an inaccuracy would not surprise me.)